Summary - Chapter 6: The Nature of Learning
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THE NATURE OF LEARNING |
BEHAVIOURISM: THE MODERN PAST |
BRAIN DEVELOPMENTALISM AND CONSTRUCTIVISM: MORE RECENT TIMES |
SOCIAL COGNITIVISM: TOWARDS NEW LEARNING |
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Dimension 1: The processes of learning |
• Learning can be understood by studying behaviours • There are no fundamental differences between learning in humans and animals |
• Stages of biological development • ‘Constructivism’ in which the child builds their understanding based on ‘readiness’ • The ‘language instinct’ • The intrinsic learning capacities of the brain |
• The cultural bases of learning and the acquisition of social systems of meaning • The social shape of the individual mind |
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Dimension 2: The sources of ability |
• ‘Conditioning’: stimulus-response– reinforcement (positive = reward; negative = punishment) |
• A focus on nature and biology • Universal and invariant sequences • Inherited differences in ability |
• A focus on nurture, grounded in the broad scope of |
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Dimension 3: Infrastructure for learning |
• Developing conditioned learning sequences • Didactic teaching |
• Naturalistic understanding of brain and readiness • Authentic education |
• The transformative task of education is to work with learners in the acquisition of a socio-cognitive inheritance |
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Dimension 4: Measuring learning |
• Measuring ‘natural’ differences in intelligence |
• A tendency to monocultural and individualistic understandings of cognition and learning |
• A social perspective • A recognition that, as so much of what is learned |